


The Confession

by Persiflage



Series: Mashed Up Tropes Fics [21]
Category: Holby City
Genre: Accidentally High, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bernie Wolfe: The World's Okay-est Lesbian, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Mash-up, Minor Violence, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Serena Campbell: Bisexual Extraordinaire, Side Effects, Trope de Trope, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:02:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28338132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: Canon divergence: Bernie's injured while breaking up a fight. The painkiller she's given has an interesting side effect.
Relationships: Serena Campbell/Bernie Wolfe
Series: Mashed Up Tropes Fics [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960414
Comments: 12
Kudos: 59





	The Confession

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sanctitatem](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sanctitatem/gifts).



> Written for doctorjameswatson for the Mashed Up Tropes Meme on Tumblr, for the tropes: 27. Sick/Injured Fic and 60. Poorly Timed Confession.

Serena walks onto AAU after a meeting with the hospital Board to be greeted with a great deal of shouting and, as she rounds the corner, the sight of a fight taking place in the middle of the ward.

“What’s going on here?” she demands, and Donna rushes over.

“It’s those football supporters that were brought in yesterday evening,” she says, anxiously wringing her hands in a manner quite unlike herself. “They woke up this morning and kicked off.”

Serena gives her a sharp look, but Donna doesn’t appear to realise she’s just made a pun. “Well, call Security,” Serena snaps.

“We already have and they’re on their way.”

“Stop this at once!” 

Both women turn towards the fight to see Bernie Wolfe, in full Major mode to judge by the parade ground voice, wading into the fight. 

“I will not have this sort of unseemly behaviour on the ward,” Bernie continues. “You’re frightening the rest of the patients.”

The young men ignore her, continuing to try to smack each other and too often succeeding. 

“Where’s Fletch?” asks Serena, thinking that at least he’s burly enough to help Bernie.

“Taken that young lad for an MRI.”

Serena sighs. “Right, then,” she says, mentally rolling up her sleeves as she prepares to wade in.

Only to be stopped in her tracks by the sound of a meaty fist landing on Bernie’s cheek. It must have hurt, Serena thinks, but Bernie shows no sign of it. She just swings around and grabs the culprit’s wrist, then begins moving his arm to twist it behind his back, eliciting a yell of – well, Serena’s not sure if it’s pain, fear, rage, or some combination of the three. The young man staggers backwards, away from the other combatants, yelling that Bernie’s broken his arm as he clutches at his shoulder. 

Serena diagnoses a dislocated shoulder even without investigation. “Let’s get him out of range,” she suggests to Donna, who hastens to help her do so.

“Did you see what that cow did to me?” demands the young man – Vince, if Serena remembers correctly. “She broke my arm. She fuckin’ broke me fuckin’ arm.”

“Come on, Vincent, let’s get you back to your bed, then we can check whether or not your arm is broken,” says Donna.

They manage to get him into his bed and Donna, at Serena’s nod, gives him a mild sedative to calm him down while he’s relatively incapacitated.

The pair then turn back to the fray, to discover that Security has finally arrived, and all the combatants are now being restrained, with a second one complaining about the ‘evil bitch’ who broke his arm – another dislocated shoulder, Serena suspects. She wonders, suddenly, if her new co-lead got involved in a lot of unarmed combat while serving in the RAMC.

The two young men who didn’t get a shoulder dislocated are discharged with immediate effect and escorted from the ward, and indeed the hospital, by Security. The two young men who did acquire a dislocated shoulder are both left, mildly sedated, in their beds to stew in their own juices, while Serena leads Bernie into their office.

“Are you alright?” she asks, guiding the blonde to a seat in the visitor’s chair alongside her desk.

“I think that lout might’ve broken my cheekbone,” Bernie says, wincing as she speaks.

Serena squeezes her right shoulder, then leans out of the door. Raf is by the Nurses’ Station so she beckons him over and tells him to fetch the portable X-ray machine and a single dose injection of fentanyl.

When she moves back into the office it’s to see Bernie looking desperately dejected. “I’m sorry, Serena,” she says, wincing again. “I lost control of your ward and let it be turned into a battleground. Worse, most of our patients were frightened by having to witness that melee, and I hurt two of our patients.”

“Not before one of them hurt you,” Serena observes, clasping Bernie’s shoulder again as she sits down in her own chair, wheeling it closer. 

“That’s not an excuse for hurting our patients,” Bernie says, her tone becoming grim. “Primum non nocere. First, do no harm.” She looks away from Serena. “I shouldn’t be on your ward. I shouldn’t even be in this hospital, anymore. I should be struck off.” 

“Oh no you shouldn’t,” Serena says immediately, then looks up and gives Raf a relieved smile when he walks in carrying the portable X-ray machine. He sets it down on the floor near Bernie’s chair, then pulls out the fentanyl injection she’d requested.

“Here we go, Major, let’s see if we can’t ease the pain at least a little bit.” His cheery demeanour doesn’t seem to have any effect on Bernie’s gloom, and he gives Serena a quizzical look. She shakes her head, then reaches out to squeeze Bernie’s knee since it’s nearer.

“We’re going to take an X-ray of your cheek, now,” Serena tells her.

“Okay.” Bernie obligingly turns towards Raf, who has already hefted the machine from the floor. She sits very still as he operates it, then once he lowers it, she asks him, in a very conversational tone, “Don’t you think Serena’s pretty?”

Serena feels herself flush at the question and can’t help wondering what’s provoked it since Bernie’s usually so reticent about her feelings.

“I do,” Raf agrees, with an apologetic glance at Serena.

“Yeah. She’s very pretty, and also so elegant and sophisticated. Not like me. My father always used to say I looked like something the cat had dragged in ‘n’ Marcus reckoned I looked like I’d been dragged through an ‘edge backwards. But he hated it when I wore my uniform to the fundraisers at St James’ – thought I was tryna show ‘im up, but I wassunt. He always made me wear a dress an’ I ‘ate wearin’ a dress. Look like a stick insect.”

Serena had started out trying to suppress a smile as she realised the fentanyl injection must be having an effect, but she’s now doing her best to suppress her rage at the men in Bernie’s life – or formerly in her life, since she knows the Brigadier is dead now and Bernie is in the process of getting a divorce from Marcus Dunn. How dare anyone, but especially her father and her husband, make her feel so bad.

She watches as Bernie grabs Raf’s wrist and tugs his arm until he leans down, then she stage whispers, “I really like S’r’na. I – I mor’n like her. She’s pretty an’ witty an’ clever an’ suff-suffixticated. An’ – an’ – an’ I wanna kiss her.” Raf’s eyes go wide and the look he gives her is pleading, but the Major’s got a tight grip on his wrist as she continues, “I wanna kiss her but she wunt wanna kiss me coz ‘m not like ‘er. An’ she’s straight. Issa shame she’s straight.” She releases her grip on Raf, who straightens up, then begins massaging his wrist. 

Serena feels frozen in her chair, her mouth dry and her heart pounding in her chest. 

“Gonna sleep now,” Bernie informs them, then leans her head back against the wall and immediately, to judge by the soft snores, falls asleep.

“Wow,” Raf says. “I guess that drug really – uh – really had an effect, huh?”

Serena straightens up, glaring at him, and he immediately holds up his hands, palms extended towards her. 

“Really, Serena, you don’t need to say it. I promise I won’t say a word about this to anyone. And I’ll never mention it to either you or the Major.”

“Good. We should get Ms Wolfe into a bed – sleeping in that chair won’t do her back any good.” She glances up and sees Fletch passing with the young lad he’d taken to the MRI in a wheelchair. “Grab Fletch, will you, and that wheelchair, and we’ll put the Major in the side room.”

“Yeah, of course.” Raf picks up the X-ray machine and sets it on the end of Bernie’s desk, then hurries out to grab Fletch.

“Oh Bernie,” Serena says softly, sighing. “Whatever am I going to do with you?”

She shakes her head, wondering just how long her co-lead has been harbouring a desire to kiss her, then pushes the thought aside as Raf and Fletch return. They get Bernie transferred into the wheelchair and Serena follows them to the side room where they transfer the blonde into the bed.

“Take the X-ray machine to Radiology, please, Raf and ask them to deal with it as a priority because it’s one of our own.”

“Of course, Serena.” He hurries out, and she gestures for Fletch to move out of the room also.

“We’ll leave the Major to sleep off the fentanyl and hope that the X-rays come back clear.” Fletch nods and Serena takes the time to look around the ward, to which order’s been restored. Donna comes hurrying up and asks after Bernie, then tells Serena that the two young men who’d had their shoulders dislocated have both had them reduced and have been discharged from the ward, too, each with their arm in a sling. 

“Security saw them off the premises and into separate taxis,” Donna tells her. 

“Good,” Serena says, relieved that they’ve gone. “Did either of them try to make a formal complaint against Ms Wolfe?”

“No,” Donna says firmly. “Vince made noises along those lines, but I discouraged him from pursuing it with the reminder that he’d punched her first and that he’d done her more damage than she’d done him. Johnny didn’t even mention it.”

“Good. I need to go and talk to Hanssen. Ms Wolfe was full of guilt about what she’d done and was trying to convince herself she should be struck off.”

“No!” says Fletch.

“No way!” agrees Donna.

“Quite. I’m going to go and explain the situation to Hanssen and ask him to come and have a word with her once she wakes up.”

“Good idea,” Fletch says. “We can’t lose our trauma surgeon. She’s too important, ain’t she?”

“She is,” Donna says immediately.

Serena nods, then leaves them to keep an eye on both Bernie and the ward while she heads upstairs to see the CEO.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Hanssen duly comes down to see Bernie once she’s woken up and they’ve given her the X-ray results – a hairline crack in her right cheekbone. 

“Since you should talk as little as possible, I’m going to give you the rest of the week off,” Hanssen tells her. “And once you return we’ll try to ensure you have to talk as little as possible until the swelling goes down more. As for your conviction that you should be struck off, let me assure you that neither patient whose shoulder you dislocated has registered a formal complaint, and that I consider you to have been acting in self defence in the first instance, and in the defence of others in the second instance. It is my wish, therefore, that this matter be considered over and dealt with. You served your team well today, Ms Wolfe, so we’ll say no more about the matter.”

“Yes, sir,” Bernie husks and Serena wonders if she’s repressing the urge to salute.

“Good. I wish you a speedy recovery, Ms Wolfe.”

“Thank you.”

He nods at them both, then walks off to inspect the ward.

“How are you feeling?” Serena asks, sitting in the visitor’s chair and wrapping her fingers around Bernie’s hand.

“Like a prize idiot.” She frowns, then winces at the tug on her cheekbone. 

“Well you’re not an idiot,” Serena says. She brushes her thumb to and fro over Bernie’s knuckles. “I would call you a prize, though.” She lifts Bernie’s hand and gently presses her lips to Bernie’s knuckles, then smiles at the wide eyed look the blonde gives her. “Mm, yes. Definitely a catch.”

“I – You – What?” she stutters.

Serena smiles. “I more than like you, too,” she says softly. “Why don’t you come and stay in my guest room while you’re healing?”

“I – um – I’d like that.”

“Good.” Serena turns Bernie’s hand over and presses her lips to the inside of her wrist. “Proper kisses will have to wait until your face hurts a good deal less, but in the meantime, we can get to know one another better.”

“I – um – I thought you – you were – you know –” Bernie makes a vague gesture with her free hand and Serena smiles, taking pity on her.

“That I’m a dyed in the wool heterosexual?” she suggests.

“That,” Bernie agrees.

“I thought so too, until I met you.” She smirks a little. “Maybe I’m a Wolfesexual.”

Bernie makes a choking noise. “Please don’t make me laugh.”

Serena smiles. “Alright. I’ll have pity on you, for now. But only because you’re injured.”

“Thank you.”

“I’d like you to rest quietly in here for the rest of your shift, then we’ll go over to the flat and pick up your things to take back to mine. Okay?”

“Mm. Might go to sleep again.”

“You do that, Major.” Serena stands up and briefly presses her lips to Bernie’s forehead. “Use the call button if the pain gets unbearable and you need something to help.” When Bernie’s eyes go wide, Serena squeezes her hand, which she’s still holding. “Don’t worry, we’ll just give you ibuprofen this time.”

“Thank you, Serena. For everything.”

Serena shakes her head. “Just remember, Major, that you’re my hero.”

Bernie shakes her head slightly. 

“I mean it,” Serena says firmly. “Get some sleep and I’ll see you later. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Serena can’t resist one more press of her lips to Bernie’s temple, then another squeeze of her hand, before she leaves her to get some rest.

She’d known Major Berenice Wolfe would be an interesting addition to AAU. She just hadn’t anticipated how interesting. She finds herself looking forward to getting to know the blonde much better in the future.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](https://pers-books.tumblr.com/post/631039865764577280/27-and-60)


End file.
